Flames' Sarich headed home for evaluation

As the Flames headed to the Twin Cities for Thursday's bout with the Minnesota Wild, defenceman Cory Sarich headed home for assessment.

After a huge collision during overtime in a 2-1 loss Tuesday to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver left him groggy, Sarich was sent home for further evaluation.

Although he reportedly suggested he felt fine in the morning, the team will play it safe and make sure he goes through the proper protocol following the impact with David Jones -- which seemed to be incidental.

Fortunately for the Flames, fellow defenceman Chris Butler says he's ready to return from the deep laceration that has kept him on the shelf for the past month.

"I feel good. Before the trip, we kind of targeted this game as hopefully being the game I can return," Butler said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, with Cory going down, I kind of need to return. But at the same time this is the game I wanted to be ready for and I feel like I am ready for it."

It's been an unlucky year for the Flames on the injury front. Every time someone seems ready to come back, another player is injured.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Butler. "If you saw, Derek Smith took that puck in the face on the bench (Tuesday). Matt Duchene dumped a puck in and it went right into the bench, cut him open for five, six stitches.

"It seems like we've had pretty much every single type of injury you could ever imagine this year.

"To still be in the spot that we are with being decimated by injuries, I think guys have got to take some pride in that."

Captain coming back

Mikko Koivu will make his return from a shoulder injury and centre the top line once again Thursday night when the Wild host the Flames at the Xcel Energy Center.

Maybe that will be what Calgary product Dany Heatley needs to snap his lengthy slump. It's expected the trio of Heatley, Koivu and Devin Setoguchi will be reunited and that has to be good news for Heatley, who's gone without a point in eight straight games and has just one goal in his last 16.